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CANADIAN DOGS ANNUAL 2018
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FOUR
TOP BEHAVIOURS
EVERY DOG
SHOULD KNOW TRAINING YOUR DOG STARTS WITH KNOWING THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO TEACH HIM. “STAY”, “COME”, “LEAVE IT”, AND “HEEL” TOP THE LIST OF BEHAVIOURS EVERY DOG SHOULD KNOW. BY PAUL OWENS
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CANADIAN DOGS ANNUAL 2018
WHY “BEHAVIOURS” AND NOT “COMMANDS”?
1 STAY Teaching a dog to stay in position is one of the most important behaviours to teach your dog. That being said, many trainers teach two similar concepts with slightly different meanings. One signal is “stay” and another is “wait”. The difference between the two often has to do with the degree of rigidity or formality. When “wait” is used, it’s kind of like saying “hold on a minute”. “Stay” really means “freeze in that particular position”. Some trainers use “wait” in situations involving boundaries, such as in the case of a dog waiting to get out of a car or go through a door. Other trainers use “wait” as a form of “leave it”. For example, if a dog is going for food on a table or running to greet someone at the door, the trainer might use “wait”, followed by a release or another signal to do something else instead. To add to the confusion, some trainers don’t use “stay” or “wait” at all. They teach that once a dog is asked to sit, lie down or stand still, there’s a strict implication that he is to stay in that position until released. There is no follow-up signal of “stay” or “wait”.
All these are perfectly fine as long as your communication to the dog is clear. It’s just a matter of starting at your dog’s learning baseline and progressing towards reliability, gradually adding the three D’s Duration, Distance and Distractions. Depending on a number of factors, reliability usually takes two to 12 months, and sometimes longer. For me, “stay” means to stay in position, whether the dog is standing, sitting or lying down. The critical thing to remember is that whatever you choose to do, there must be a beginning and an end. I tell clients: “If you ever say ‘stay’ you have to say ‘okay’.” In other words, no matter what word you use, you must remember to release your dog. Your release word(s) can be “okay”, “find it”, “come”, “you’re free”, or “that’ll do”. Just remember to always release.
Commands imply that if the edict isn’t followed, dire consequences will ensue! Forty years ago, that’s exactly what would happen, and the dire consequences would include the use of choke chains, pinning dogs to the ground, threatening them with yelled “NOs”, etc. But in positive, reward-based, force-free training, which many trainers switched to in the 1980s, there are no threats. Only signals.
Here’s a classic example of why dogs get confused. People don’t want their dogs following them when they leave the house, and often say “stay” so their dogs don’t run out the door. Once the door is shut, the dog looks around and essentially says to himself: “Well, there’s nobody around, so I’m getting up.” Then people don’t understand why their dogs won’t stay when asked.
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